I know we've discussed it here before, but that documentary about them that came out maybe 5 years ago now was really good.
I'm not gonna keep on lovin you Veteran rockers REO SPEEDWAGON have announced that they will stop touring at the end of 2024. The decision to halt all touring activities was apparently prompted by a disagreement over a return to the stage of bassist Bruce Hall, who underwent back surgery last November. https://blabbermouth.net/news/reo-speedwagon-to-stop-touring-due-to-irreconcilable-differences
NOTHING's too good for the 70s! Ouch. I remember 15 year-old me thinking "...surely there's a topic worth talking about that's more serious than hot butter on breakfast toast...". It took mainstream rap a while to get to the point where it addressed various injustices (and on the way there, it made a few ill-advised stops), but I guess it had to start somewhere. I want to get it the first time without having to dissect it like you sometimes have to do with a narcissistic poet or lyricist. If you're not singing, you're not providing melody or harmony. It's no longer good enough (as it would be if you were singing) to be clever with phrase- you HAVE to say something important. and Rapper's Delight doesn't. It's essentially spoken word- it must tell me a story or it must give me some advice. I dropped some Lost Poets into this thread 3-4 years ago. I don't think the guys here were ready for that, as the likes were few. It was some of the most intense stuff I've ever heard, waaay more real than what they're used to.
Wiki'd. I would have put everything I own on them being Canadian. I don't know why. They're American, tho. I'm surprised they have a following this many years after they charted. Some bands can "stand the test of time", so to speak, without me wanting to hear them in concert. I liked Little River Band enough when they were big, but I wouldn't have gone to see them then or now. Same with REO. I'm now asking myself how many bands of my teens I would go hear today if they were all touring. I can't think of any. Reason is, a live show IMO is part of an experience that you have with others in the moment, listening to the same hits you heard on the radio that morning on the way to school.
Been listening to The Sound of Finnish Indie, a Spotify playlist. I know nothing of Finland except the Haka/Honka football derby (or maybe it's not a derby, but it should be). Discovered The Holy on it a few days ago. Sad to see they disbanded only this month or so. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ9A5dAWJfV4u91LREdB9PA
Interesting picks @Quakes05 Never a fan of the Richtie Hawtin Detroit scene Was much more into the german hard trance style AKA "Frankfurt Beat". 1995 was the peak of the sound IMO. You probably haven't lived until you've danced at a remote mountain location to these epic spatial tunes. I did dabble in D&B which really took over during the late 90s - love that squarepusher track you posted but probably more for the video than the track.
I've been lucky enough to see some great electronic artists along the way, including some of the pioneers like Kraftwerk and Jean-Michel Jarre. Haven't tried the remote mountain location, sounds amazing, around here it was clubs, music venues and (back in the 90's) the occasional warehouse.
They made a cameo in a book I just read about 2Tone records, which put out The Specials, Madness, and a few things by The (English) Beat. As the article notes, they toured with a lot of those bands, and it did not go well (but it toughened them up). After The Specials called it quits, a few of them formed Fun Boy Three. I recall absolutely hating their "cover" of "Our Lips Are Sealed." Turns out, it wasn't a cover. They co-wrote the song on the back of a tour bus with the Go-Gos. Still don't like the FB3 version all that much. But I see where they're coming from now.
They were still touring???????? Yeah: they're about as downstate Illinois as you can get. They played dorm parties and frat parties at the college I eventually went to. My older brother saw them. By the time I was there, they were playing in the basketball arena. Like, every other year.
Not that it matters much to me, but whatever little personality or worth that band had walked out the door when Gary Richrath left. Of course, by that point Cronin had most of the hits to his credit so it was his band anyway.
There are a lo of people who are really only interested in spending time, money, and effort to go see the tried-and-true in concert. Good chance most people in the audience don't know the names of the musicians and therefore don't care how many (if any) original members are left--the band is a brand name for them. And the musicians know to play the hits, avoid deep cuts, and keep the infliction of new material (if they've even bothered) to an absolute minimum.
Cronin's brother lived in my dorm in college. A few of the band did an acoustic jam on the 5th floor the day of the concert. I missed it. And, really, I don't miss missing it. Not like I missed the last Bob Marley gig in Pittsburgh (even though that would have been a ridiculous road trip to have taken with 4 Jamaican guys.
And the casino circuit apparently pays well enough to keep a band in business. And I'm happy about that-- I can't imagine what it is like to have real hits, and then suddenly have to do something else if you still want to play and /or write. And sometimes there are acts that are right up my alley, and I go to them on the same basis as seeing the Texas Playboys about the same time-- early 90's. Or Stephane Grappelli in 1978. And sometimes they are as vital as they ever were... " I'm a player, Brad; players go where people want to listen. I don't care if it is 15000 or 15-- it's what I do, and I'm just happy anybody wants to listen." (Jack Casady to my boss when he visited my radio station about 1993. Brad had asked him-- off mike-- if he found it tedious to be playing a bar in small town Taos after Woodstock and Central Park and stadiums.) (Of course in Jack's case it is people like Grace Potter and Molly Tuttle who have been listening, and I don't know as REO has that quality of audience...)
All due respect to the Penguins for writing an amazing gem of a song, but this may be the singular time I prefer a movie cover. The death cab cover is fantastic as well. Just such a well written, universal song.
A friend of theirs, Jesse Belvin, wrote the initial song. Penguin Curtis Williams then trimmed a bunch of stuff out of it--addition by subtraction-- and non-Penguin labelmate Cornel Gunter tinkered with it some while directing rehearsals for them (they were just a quartet of high school kids and it was their first recording session.) So the song itself is about 1/4 Penguins and 3/4 other folks...
Very cool backstory. I'm relatively young - for bigsoccer terms - so I never had any of that context. What's that quote about perfection is when you can't remove anything else?
Fully agree--it's not my thing, but I don't begrudge musicians keeping the 'brand name' going in order to sell tickets, get gigs, and pay the bills. I respect working musicians swallowing their pride and meeting the audience wherever they can find it.
Don't know that one, but it sorta sounds like Steinbeck maybe? Certainly can't be Hemingway? Ringo Starr on how good Charley Watts was: "He's the guy who leaves out almost as much as me!"
That's Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Edit: The quote doesn't scan well, so I had to Google it to get it right. Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Edit, part 2: de Saint-Exupery, most famous for writing The Little Prince didn't write that in the book; he was writing about aircraft design. He was perhaps the most famous aviator in the world not named Charles Lindberg, as well as an early plane designer. His plane went down in WWI in the Sahara, which is where as a youth, he'd written Prince.